Timber wolf short wheelbase?

[DodgeC]

New guy looking to make a power only trike or compact quad for my brother’s 65th. He has limited use of legs and doesn’t want a hand crank. The hand levers are interesting, but I haven’t delved deep into it. I happen to have a good amount of the 1-1/2 tubing and a few trike hubs. I would like to keep the seat height close to wheelchair height for easier transfer. Max 12mph probably

His current spare chair I modified with 26” fat tires and increased the track to 28 with an escooter for power. Works okay except for that teeny wheel. But the turn radius is good.

The timber wolf looks interesting if I could shorten the wheelbase and keep stability. A compact quad is also possible for ease of entry, but I haven’t played with any tadpole style steering setups. Or maybe a Python rear setup for simplicity.

Thanks in advance

 

[Popshot]

For 12mph a 350w motor should manage but a 500w may be needed to deal with hills. Usually a 500w will get you to 20mph but only on the flat. I plump for a 48v 500w motor to be safe. The throttle can always be pulled a bit less than max.

To shorten the Timberwolf you'll need to get feet above the front wheel. The shorter the wheelbase the quicker the steering.

 

[DodgeC]

For 12mph a 350w motor should manage but a 500w may be needed to deal with hills. Usually a 500w will get you to 20mph but only on the flat. I plump for a 48v 500w motor to be safe. The throttle can always be pulled a bit less than max.

To shorten the Timberwolf you'll need to get feet above the front wheel. The shorter the wheelbase the quicker the steering.

Thanks,
Going to look at some mock ups on length as well as different wheel sizes for the front. I have 20 and 26for the rear, bug I think I will go 20” to keep the form factor smaller.

 

[stormbird]

New guy looking to make a power only trike or compact quad for my brother’s 65th. He has limited use of legs and doesn’t want a hand crank. The hand levers are interesting, but I haven’t delved deep into it. I happen to have a good amount of the 1-1/2 tubing and a few trike hubs. I would like to keep the seat height close to wheelchair height for easier transfer. Max 12mph probably

Electric only increases your options considerably as you don't have to take the chain routing into account. What is a wheel chair seat height ?

His current spare chair I modified with 26” fat tires and increased the track to 28 with an escooter for power. Works okay except for that teeny wheel. But the turn radius is good.

I have seen bolt on conversions for adding a normal sized bicycle wheel to a wheel chair , that might be a good starting point. If your brother is going to ride in urban environments mixing with pedestrians and street furniture he really wants a delta. A tadpole will not have the required agility.

The timber wolf looks interesting if I could shorten the wheelbase and keep stability. A compact quad is also possible for ease of entry, but I haven’t played with any tadpole style steering setups. Or maybe a Python rear setup for simplicity.

Tough call that a delta is easy to mount IF you can get over the main boom , a quad will have a bigger reserve of stability over a delta OR tadpole however you will have the front wheel to get over/round.

Thanks in advance

This is a project list from a Finnish forum recumbent projects in there someone builds a asymmetrical delta trike for people with limited mobility like this ?, there are lots of other good ideas usually with some description as to how/why they were built.

Paul

 

[DodgeC]

Thank you very much Paul. Wheel chair seat height is typically around 18-19 with the sport chairs with camber being lower.

The agility of the Delta is what keeps bringing me back to it. But, this will be more of a special purpose chair so I gave some latitude.
I had a set of go cart spindles in the barn and cut a piece of steel for a front beam. Have it mocked with 10 degree caster. Need to weld it up, but it was 101 inside the shop and apparently I have gotten too old for that nonsense. Will do a test with the smaller 13” gokart wheels just to see if agility is a nogo from the start